KARACHI, Dec 17: A month-long hectic electioneering for the much-sought after slots of the Arts Council of Pakistan comes to an end on Sunday with a little over 3,000 voters electing new office-bearers and governing body members for the year 2006.

Voters will elect three candidates from the nine aspirants contesting for the top three slots of vice-president, honorary secretary and treasurer. A 12-member governing body will be elected from amongst 34 candidates in the run.

Unlike the past traditions of two contesting panels, this year a third panel is contesting the elections for three major slots and 10 positions of the governing council. At least three candidates are contesting elections as independents for the slots of the governing body.

The three panels contesting the elections are of Grami-Aneeq-Rizwan panel, Azfar Rizvi-Yawar Mehdi-Salma Baig panel and Fanoon-i-Latifa panel.

The candidates contesting elections for the post of vice-president are Saifur Rehman Grami, Syed Azfar Rizvi and Arif Shariq.

The candidates contesting elections for the post of honorary-secretary are Aneeq Ahmed, Yawar Mehdi and Mansoor Zubari. The candidates contesting elections for the post of treasurer are Rizwan Siddiqui, Salma Baig and Javed Yousaf Qamar.

Those contesting elections for the governing body are Dr Rehana Muhammad Ali Shah, Muhammad Ayub, Shehnaz Siddiqui, M. Zaheer Khan, Fakhr-i-Alam, Prof Saher Ansari, Farhad Zaidi, Idrees, Ghazi, Azra Riaz, Sajid Hasan, Seema Ghazal, Kamal Ahmed Rizvi, Ibrahim Nafees, Naqqash Kazmi, Rabia Zubairi, Dr Farhana Essa, Najamuddin Sheikh, Waseem Hashmi, Shahina Puri, Owais Adeeb Ansari, Fazila Kazi, Zakia Ghazal, Adam Rathore, Haider Imam Rizvi, Muhammad Anwar Hannan, Naseem Ahmed Durrani, Muhammad Subektageen Saba, Vakil Farooqi, M. Asif Malik, Shabana Saher, Muhammad Sadiq, Zareen Fatima, Zainuddin Ahmed and Muhammad Aslam Shaikh.

The arts council has over 4,000 members and little over 3,000 eligible voters.

The general body meeting would be presided by the DCO Karachi, who is also ex-officio president of the arts council.

The DCO and his 100 plus staff comprising officers and lower staff are entrusted duties as part of the Election Commission.

A general body meeting is stated to be held at 10am. But to require a quorum of 200 members, it normally takes up to 12 noon for the meeting to get into full swing, said Shamim Alam, Executive Director of the Arts Council, adding that the meeting would end around 1.30pm and after a half-an-hour break polling would begin at 2pm which would continue till 10pm without any break. The vote counting would continue late in the night.